My Music

Sunday, 31 January 2010

Meic Stevens and Lleuwen Steffan called in to say hello and have a few drinks before going off to Quimper and l'Orient. I used to have cassettes of her father Steve Eaves but I don't have anything on C.D. Now I've got a Lleuwen album ('Penmon') to go with about 7 or 8 albums of Meic. Later on in the evening I had visitors from Bargoed who are now living in Swansea and have a house nearby at Treogat. We exchanged reminiscences about the 'Brandy Bridge; Tiffanys; Sands;'The Imp' and 'The Loco' in Merthyr.A good atmosphere with musicians playing throughout the evening at the tables outside and an audience of my customers sitting on the wall opposite enjoying themselves drinking,watching and listening.

70 minutes ago, Morwen gave birth to my third grandchild, her third child,at Carhaix, a daughter after two sons; Awena (the feminine form of 'a poetic muse' in Welsh and Breton) weighing 3 kilos. To think that I only came to Brittany for two weeks holidays.

I learn something everyday in my Pub; today I learned that there was a Welsh racing car called the Keift, built at Bridgend, I already knew that there was a production car called the Gilbern, built at Llantwit Fardre, Pontypridd. Have you ever heard of a French car called the 'Georges Irat'? I also learned that there were Japanese sub-mariners at Chateauneuf-du-Faou during the war.
Saying that the inhabitants of Spain speak Spanish and that the inhabitants of France speak French is the same as saying that the inhabitants of Gt. Britain speak British. The dominant language of Spain and of South America (apart from Brazil) is Castillan; the dominant language of Gt. Britain is English and the dominant language of France is Langue d'Oil. Langue d'Oil is the language of France north of the line 'Poitiers-Grenoble' adopted by the State and then imposed upon the rest of the Country, comprising Wallon; Picard; Champenois; Lorrain; Franc-Contois; Bourgignon; Angevin; Normand and the dialect of the greater Parisian region. Langue d'Oc, the language of the south, comprises Limousin; Auvergnat; Gascon; Provençal etc. One also has in France the languages of Brittany, the Basque Country, Catalonia, Corsica and Flanders, plus the German dialects of the East.Under the French Constitution every citizen is equally French, Langue d'Oil is the language and minorities are not supported. Bi-lingualism is not a French concept. We say 'Lingua Franca,' the French still hold to this and English is an Anglo-Saxon conspiracy to displace the French from their rightful position in the world and equality to the minorities risks breaking up the Frankish hegemony.

Having been born and bred in Wales, I find it mind-blowing that I can read in the Sunday Times culture international supplement; "... and verse-recitation competitions are held in Ireland and America, ...". George Borrow was right to write 'Wild Wales' as a voyage to a foreign country, as we might as well be somewhere between Outer Mongolia and New Guinea insofar as our own culture is beheld by our Anglo-Saxon nearest neighbours.

Yesterday I tuned in to Radio Wales and heard Ruth Jones interviewing Neil and Glenys Kinnock. I was a little surprised at her apparent fawning. This Wales for the world caricature, an ever ready Welshman with an ever ready opinion for the media, usually concerning rugby and soccer; proof of his fabled dexterity. Always been clever at working both sides, our proletarian lord, Tony Benn's former disciple, successful in ridding the left-wing party of its left wing element, thereby opening the way for Tony Benn's 'New Labour'; employed by the E.C. to dig out corruption, he wanted the whistle-blower who was handing him a spade, sacked. This man, who in many people's eyes represents Wales, ironically appears to say and do anything to obstruct advancement in Welsh political affairs, "it's okay for Scotland". Remember "The captain of the team"?; remember "o yeah, o yeah"?: Oh yes!
Finally; I have heard it said that Neil Kinnock would have been Prime Minister but for his being Welsh. What a load of *****.
P.S. They make a fine couple

I had a shock on watching t.v. last friday night, when I found out from his own mouth that Tom Jones is only half Welsh, not only that but the other half is English! That was worse than discovering that David Lloyd-George was born in Manchester and not Llanystumdwy. I did suspect it however, with his real name being Woodward. Incidentally, Jones does happen to be his mother's maiden name.

I've waited for this Easter week-end since last October to give me a jump start to the new season, before quietening down again before Whitsun. Yesterday I had a band of motor-bikers here from Normandy, although they only drank one glassful each, at the end of the night it turned out to have been the best day for takings this year so far. One grey spot; things got too much for my neighbour Laurent, again, he is a pain when he is like that and he slammed the door shut behind him. Unfortunately he came back just before closing time, so I closed the bar three-quarters of an hour early. Thankfully he works down in Concarneau so I don't see him dring the week.

The major part of Albion, colonised by the Brythonic or British Celts beame known as Britain; Caledonia, Land of the Picts; Strathclyde and the Gododdin, Lands of the British Welsh, were colonised by the Irish Gaelic Scots, thereby becoming Scotland; Armorica, Land of the Gauls was colonised by the British Cornish and Welsh, thereby becoming Little Briton or Brittany; The largest part of Britain was conquered and settled by the German tribes of the Angles and the Saxons, becoming in the British and Gaelic languages, Saxonland, and in their own language Angleland or England, which in turn was temporarily ruled by the Danes before being conquered and ruled over by the Normans and subsequently ruled by the Plantagenets and the House of Blois; conquered by the Tudor Welsh; ruled by the Scottish Stuarts, the Dutch House of Orange and back full circle to German rule of the Hanoverians and the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Never having been ruled by English people and having a language of such stunted growth that it is forced to borrow enough words to justify a dictionary. They have however managed to hold on to that name of England given to them by the last major wave of invaders after the Gaels and British Celts.

Things are starting to move, albeit in snail time, tomorrow is the start of the school holidays, which go on for quite a while as France is split into different zones. It was another quiet day, but there is definite movement. 'Alanfromdyfed' to use his blog name, called here at two o'clock on the way from Malaga to Kilkenny; he stayed chatting to me until six o'clock, when he left, taking a casual drive to the ferry in Roscoff for the night sailing. This 'legendary' bar had three other customers the whole time that he was here. Although they weren't many, the evening brought me customers from Lille in the north, Bourgogne or Burgundy as it's historically referred to in English and Haute Savoie in the south-east, the last area to make up the modern map of France. Hopefully the quiet of the winter is coming to an end.
Something came back to me today after my chat with Alan, something inscrutable, The houses in my school, red; green; yellow and blue were named after Welsh heroes, Caradog; Owain Glyndwr; Llewelyn and Hywel Dda respectively but nearly every morning we used to sing 'Jerusalem' in England's green and pleasant lands. It was a grammar school and they had pretentions.

Friday, 29 January 2010

PLEASE INFORM EVERYONE Emails with pictures of Osama Bin-Laden hanged are being sent and the moment that you open these emails your computer will crash and you will not be able to fix it! If you get an email along the lines of 'Osama Bin Laden Captured' or 'Osama Hanged', don't open the attachment. This e-mail is being distributed through countries around the globe, but mainly in the US andIsrael

Be considerate & send this warning to who ever you know. PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AN D CONTACTS:

You should be alert during the next few days: Do not open any message with an attached file called 'Invitation' regardless of who sent it. It is a virus that opens an Olympic Torch which 'burns' the whole hard disc C of your computer.

This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address in his/her contact list, that is why you should send this e-mail to all your contacts.

It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it If you receive a mail called 'invitation' , though sent by a friend, do not open it and shut down your computer immediately.

This is the worst virus announced by CNN, it has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever. This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept. SEND THIS E-MAIL TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW

We're thrilled to announce that Kasabian, La Roux, Calvin Harris and some very special guests will be coming together in aid of War Child for an exclusive, intimate gig for just 2,000 fans at the O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire in London.

The gig will take place immediately after the Brit Awards on Tuesday 16th February.

War Child's annual post-Brits party follows in the footsteps of last year's concert which featured performances from The Killers and Coldplay with special guest appearances from Gary Barlow and Bono.

Expect some surprises this year too!

Tickets are £50 and O2 customers can get Priority Tickets from 9am on Monday - for further information visit www.O2Priority.co.uk. Tickets go on sale to the general public at 9am on Wednesday through www.livenation.co.uk.

All profits from the concert will go to help us extend our work to even more children living in the world's most dangerous war zones.